A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left.
Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.

7 Comments:

I've just checked the nominations for my original true-blue stamping ground. Appalled to find that Labour have far from a full slate in Wycombe district and are leaving some wards uncontested which we held as recently as the 1990's. And South Bucks has just two Labour candidates. No wonder our vote has collapsed in these areas

Can you raise this at the NEC? I think someone needs to go to Bucks and find out what is going on

What's the use of replacing one Right wing government for another right wing government?

I was a Labour supporter all my life, but under New Labour we had 2 illegal wars and so much rubbish PFI, where the public took the losses and private sector took the profits and look at the wealth gap the biggest between 1997-2010 ever, you would need to convince me to go out and canvas for Labour?

Must admit I have similar problems with the referendum. There are some truly dreadful people on both sides.

However, one problem with AV is that it could well exaggerate a trend and thus give the winner a much larger parliamentary majority than is a good thing. In a mayoral election, this is not a problem as there is only one post to fill.

Also, some of the criticisms of the present system are a based on dubious assumptions. An election is all about swing voters in marginal seats. However, that assumes that existing voters will swallow anything that is put in front of them. Labour has demonstrated that that is not really the case.

Also, no seat can really be considered safe in perpetuity. Even safe seats can be lost as Labour demonstrated in a few cases at the last election and in 2005. And, of course, a safe seat can also quickly become much less so.

I suppose if the past year hasn't convinced people that there IS a difference between even "New" Labour and the parties of the REAL right, then it is hard to see what will. Still, the mileage of hard left delusionalists who virtually destroyed the party as a serious force 30 years ago may differ.

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About Me

Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.